Transmission of power for use in vehicles.



snc. SHERMAN.

TRANSMSSXON 0F POWER EGR USE 1N VEHGLES.

APPLIUATON FILED APB.. 6, 1911.

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JOHN C. SHERMAN, OF BROOKLENE, MSSACHUSETTS.

TRANSMISSION OF POWER FOR USE N VEHICLES.

i naomi.

, Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented t5? tgt.,

Application tiled April 6, 1911. Serial No. 619,4t.

lh all icimmz't may concern:

Be it known that L JOHN Csnn'ron Snnnnnr. a citizen ot the United States, residing at Brookline7 in the county of Non folk and State ot' iviassachusetts, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in the Transmission of Power for Use in Vehicles, of which the t'iilowing is a specification.

In my invention I place the engine with its shaft: parallel to the shaft to which poweris required to be transmitted, and herein known as the driven shaft, such as the rear axle ot' an automobile, and suspend the engine by resilient means `from the body of the vehicle so that it may respond to vibrations, as those transmitted thereto hy a rough road, withouty imparting great and sudden stresses to the vehicle body; and l mount upon the shaft of said engine a plurality otE gear wheels through the intermediary of clutches whereby any one ot' said gear wheels may he laused to rotate with the. engine shaft when so desired; ,l also mount upon the driven shalt. a plurality ot' lejears each ot which is provided with clutch means .vhcrehy it. may be caused to rotate tixedly with said shat't when so desired. i cause the gear wheels ou the engine shaft to remain permanently in mesh with the gear wheels correspondim;v thereto on the driven shaft. irrcspectively ot any motion which the engine may take on because ot its resilient suspension, hy providing' one or more rigid radius rodsl which are pivoted upon the center line ot' the drivcn shalt and tixed to some tixed sup port upon the engine or its framing.

is this new method otl transmission is oclieved to he particularly desirable tor use in connection with the improved engine described in my ll. t5. latent ot' November Il. 1908, No. 902,692. l show in this present instance a clutch in the engine-shaft, such as is used in my prior patent, whereby one or more engine cylinders may he. caused to cease revolving' and he thrown out oli opera tion when so desired and properly returned to operation when so desired.

Referring, to the accompanying draw'ngs which illustrato conventiomilly the emhodiA ment of my invention, JFigure i represerts in plan View a motor carriage cha^sis and running gear equipped with one form of my invention. Fin'. Q represents, on a scale suhstantially twice the scale of Fig. i, a Vertical cross-.section of chassis running gear and my invention taken through the line X X of Fig. l. I

In 1 the engine shaft is indicated at o. .'lwo pairs oit opposed Q-cycle engine cylinders with all necessary parts and pack-- ings are indicated respectively aty Z; and b",

said cylindersl operating' pistons and piston rods (not shown) cranks upon engine shaft. in the usual manner. itlounted upon the shaittn is a double acting' friction clutching device and Controlling lc-ver therefor indicated kat A second friction clutching device and controlling lever therefor is shown at (Z Similarly mounted upon shat't u. The 'friet-ion clutchiimr devices c and d' are keyed to the engine shaft hy means of toys and kev ways which permit them to slide axiallv upon said shalt hut which compel them to 'rotate with sail shaft whenever the said shatt rotates. At c and are conr wheels centered and horno upon shaft f: hut free to revolve independcntly thereof.

ll'hen clutching device e is n'iovecl hy means of its lever upward (regarding its line ot3 movement in the plane ot the drawing' as directed toward the top of the drawing) or to the lettI of the vehicle (1'eeuirdingr the device as existing in concrete t'orm) it is 'forced into trictional contact with cog wheel f and therefore if the shaft (I is :it that time revolving the cog: wheel f will receive thc full rotative impulse of said sha'tt. ltl'eanwhilc cog wheel c treeto remain stationary. lt' said clutching; device c is next moved downwardn or inthe direction opposite to the movement 4inst noted. it will now engage cog wheel c 'and impart thereto the rotative impulse o't` shaft n. and during): thisl operation cog wheel isreleased troni engagement with c and may then remain stationary until again thrown into engage ment with c. Similarly. if c is placed in its po:"i'tion` wherein it does not engage either c or 7" and (Z is thrown downward it will similarly engage cog: wheel g. which is centered upon shaftv n in like manner as e and j", and w'll now cause the rotative irnpulse ot' shat't u to he connnunicated to The driven shaft. in this case the rear axle of an automobile, is shown aty li, parallel to shaft a. Upon this shaft is preferably mounted a ditierential gear housed in the casing I which 'asing :may he constrained from rotation if desired in any convenient manner. livotally mounted upon said and thereby turning roeofrie if". eli di e rms. il

b o and the u er ends of these s rinffs il? 3 D are bolted to the chassis m of' the vehicie. Centered and mounted revolvsbly upon axle h are three cog Wheels efaf and g. These are all confined by suitsble callers upon the axle h so that they may' revolve independently thereon but cannot more exi ally thereon. dis permegiently mesh With e," and j is permanently in mesh -with f. e and f are oie, dierent diameters, e coi responding to low speed and f corresponding to high speed of transmission or' power from engine to axle. Siiniisrl c and are of diierent diameters as' required to mesh with e and f.

It is obvious that if engine cylinders o Aare in action and I throw friction clutch c down into engagement with cog Wheel o, the latter Wili revolve sind communicate its niotion reversed in direction to e. lf now i throw clutch c down into engagement with e the letter y :revolving will co1nmuniczite its revolutions to axle Ii...

Said operation oit con'iinunicating to it the motion of e will be gradual or abrupt according to the manner of operating o. Similarly if l now throw c and then c upward, f will revolve und will conse f to revolve, und y" will tend 'to cause axle it to revolve. rlhe third cog wheel in line with i cog Wheel g on axle it but between the two and sup ported revolvebly in any convenient but not illustrated manner Yfrom. either a 7L is an intermediate geur y. le thro-iv clutch CZ down, all. other clutches being.' it the time out f engagement Wit h ali other cog Wheels. f/ will receive the, rotative impuise olE o and transmit it reversed to y which will irons mit it' on reversed to fit now l throw donn the a lit/h of" cog v.iheci y will coininimicste icing inipnlse to milo ,72.

if if. i. e to transmit the iuii energy from the CJ .odors i Z/ to fz, ni y thus einploy any one oi? t'ie crei of clutches :ind gears as stated. But es i muy at times wish to transmit less than the :full energy ot' cylinder'poirs o L to i provide e. special clutch L on shaft a between cylin" fier-pairs o and i, whereby 7) may m. vriii be thrown into or ont o'i se The spe ciiic means hv rfi ch l operai, A s clutch and its specific iurpo erflioiency the oper-fit ders ere descrihetl :ind iili Letters Patent, No. 902,6.

J is led to me UY). llovernbcr 3dj 1908, and need be no which is hung on suitable springs so that the entire' engine may inoveup and down of the vehicle, and in order tht such sus pension and such movement may not throw the engine shaft out of proper relation to the driven shaft. I unite this suspendinom cradle to the driven shaft by means of rigid;

lpivoted rods, whereby all movements of the engine :is e Whole in an upward or downe Werd direction must occur in lines of motion which are arcs of circles described With said drivon'sheft es a center. The gear Wheels src mounted by means of bell or rolier bearings so that they are free to rotate Without movementoI the shafts to which they are mounted, and. are provided with friction clutches mounted in suc? position that env gear -vheel is constraunef. to more with the shaiitor axle on which it is mounted when the corresponding' friction clutch is forced into Contact therewith. By providing several pairs of such gear Wheels,

and equipping' one or both of each pair with friction clutching means, it is obvious thait that pair oi gear Wheels will be operative at any time during' which its friction clutching ineens is operative; while other pairs, lwith their friction clutching means ont of usc, will not be compelledy to rotate with their shafts. ln order to allow for the movement it diii'erent speeds of the two rear wheels ot L i may introduce a dii'lerential gear into the rear axle at some point between the gears thereon und one or the other of the two rem wheels.

it' is obvious that, with the rotation oif the engine shaft-s, the rotation of the :title can he accomplished ineens of any one noir oi gear wheels in which at the time the .friction clutches are closed. The other sets of wheels, their clutches now remaining open, will not revoive, but will remain in mesh, ready to operate immediately upon the closing of their clutches. For the purpose of enabling' the reversal of transmitted motion for reversingv the direction of propiiision of the vehicle i provide one set of gljesrs as described with nnfintermediiite i whereby instead of one of such gears directly operating its companion gear it may [no vehicle. as required in rounding cornersy..

without causing such movements in the body f Lenceria do so through the intermediate gear and thus cause the reversal of the direction.

I prete 1ably make the friction clutches upon the drivingv shaft heavy enough to take the place of a fly wheel and fasten them so that they must rotate with said shaft, and it is olivious that with such arrangement a tiy wheel dispensed with. lt is obvious that the engine shaftI may be eont'inuonsly rotated and its rotation communicated to the axle and discommunicated without causing ahy gear to malte or break its position of meshing with another gear; and that no gear, except such as are in direct action for transmitting power.I will he in operative rotation aty any time. lt is also obvious that by connecting and disconnectingl the' appropriate clutches, speed may be changed rfrom one gear to another without discoiniecting; power from the drive shaft aid without straining the mechanism of the vehicle. lt is also obvious that by applyingr any triction clutch gradually the .speed corresponding to its gear will be acquired gradually bzv its axle.

:The means here described for suspending the engine in a cradle pivoted to the axle allow that engine to move bodily in arcs of circles having the center line ot' the rear axle as center, and ity is obvious that such n'iovement may occur `with, relative freedom even when the transmitting gans are inoperation. Moreover this arrangement causes the weighty of the engine to he added to elle drive axle in gratmeasure, thus `enabling lighter vehiclei frames and casier construction. lt is further evident that. with a pair ot' `gear wheels acting in the manner described for propelling the vehicle forward, the tendency ot thc engine shaft will be to rotate in a downward direction (when it is hung behind thc axle) g and.`as this is prevented by the spring suspension of the engine-containing cradle, all such tendency will be transmitted to thc axle and added to the effective dowmvard pressure thereon, thus increasing its lractive cl`riciency, and withdrawingby so much 'troni elitective weight on the trout wheels. '.lhus all tendency or' the driving wheels to slip lyill be lessened. Moreover when suddenly applying the power of the engine to the A aide, the torque thus produced will cause the engine cradle to sink down in its spring.:n suspension andthe energy thus temporarily inipartied to thel springs will lessen the strain induced in the axle by starting up. This will materially assist the operation of start,-A ing up.` i Y This system of power transmission enables me' readily to place in its best inode of oper-I ation the type of engine described in my U. S. Patent No. 902,692 for l can place this engine at one end of the drive shaftvandij. the gears at the other end thereof, and eply to the positions oi said shaft interina iate between the cylinders or a muticylinder enf' gine the patented devices shown in that' pat- 'entwhereby certain cylinders may be thiown into and out of use at. will. A further advantage of this new system is that, in removing all engine mechanism from the :forward part or the vehicle, l am enabled to `place all passenger seats farther forward where ditions, and to remove from in front,l of the passengers all heat and smell of the motive power.

Having thus described inyinventiomwhat A It claim as new and useful is ln a power generating andf transmitting apparatus, ay plurality of engine cylinders Z) b and a shaft operated thereby and known as the driving shaft a. a second shaft parallel to said driving shaft and herein known as the axle fr, a plurality of gears e, f, g mounted upon' said driving shaft, a plurality ot gears e. f', g moiinted upon said axle in position to make operative contact with the said gears upon the driving shaft, a plurality of clutches e, c', d, of whereby said operative contact may" be made and broken between any one et said gears on drivingl shaft5 and the corresponding gear on axle, a rigid traine m such as` an autothe vehicle affords easier riding conn mobile chassis, and resilient means K for carrying said cylinders; shaft gears and clutches: resilient means 1i for attaching said axle to said trame; rigid connecting arms (l secured to said.. cylinders and shaft and so pivotcd to said axle that all motion of displacement undergone by said cylinders and shaftrelatively to said axle is constrained to occur in the arcs of circles of which the axial line or said axle is the center; a clutch L carried on said drivingr shaftI whereby a portion ot' said driving shaftI together with the engines thereto connected may be rendered `inoperative; and a differential gear l mounted on said shaft.

JOHN C. SHERMAN. liv-Witnesses lilsinnn A. Qannnrimn, '.lnos. ll. SnninirAN. 

